Protocol Magi :ORIGIN / Episode 10

Let go of Jealousy is the tenth episode of Protocol Magi :ORIGIN.

Characters

 * Mashiro Mitsu
 * Nakajima Shiori / Aubade
 * Oshiro Hanako / Hyacinth
 * Abe Kira / Solstice
 * Hikawa Naomi / Numina
 * Aoyama Anna / Nimbus
 * Minami Mio / Métier
 * Shitto
 * Kyoei
 * Mrs.Nakajima
 * Kawamiya-sensei

Episode
Shitto was pacing through the room. She couldn’t sit still. There was no way around it; she was in a bad spot, and it, naturally was making her stress. The physical incarnation of Jealousy or not, her track record wasn’t exactly sitting well with Pandora.

Seven straight losses, two of which included the awakening of a Magi, and all she had to show for it was having closed in on her goal. Which Kyoei had boasted about finding later on.

“Oi,” a voice brought her out of her thoughts. “You’ll carve a hole in the ground.”

Shitto looked at the other messenger, “no thanks to you,” she snarled.

“Don’t push the blame on me for doing something you were too weak for,” Kyoei responded, ignoring the snarl, and her visage took a sombre look. “What are you going to do about it?” “Since when do you care about the welfare of others?” Shitto lashed out. “All I’m saying,” Kyoei replied, her normal haughty attitude gone, “is that I came across Kougi earlier. According to her, Pandora-sama’s patience is running out.” “You don’t think I don’t know that?” Shitto laughed. “You may think I’m so far below you, but I’m not a moron, so I hope you can at least get that, you stuck-up-…” “Just because I’m naturally far above everyone in this miserable place,” Kyoei bit back, “does not mean I want you to die! Yes, I am better than you. Than Kougi. Than everyone. But, that also gives me the right to decide if you get to resign yourself to the miserable fate you seem so keen on getting, which, by the way, would be extremely annoying.” “And why do you even care?!” Shitto asked. “Had you not interfered, this entire mess wouldn’t even have happened! I would’ve completed my mission, and Pandora wouldn’t have had a reason to start distrusting me!”

“For the love of-… ”Kyoei muttered in her exasperation. “These halls are pretty empty as it is, so letting them get even emptier is just sad.” “Oh, boo hoo.” Shitto snarled. “Poor, perfect, Kyoei. You claim to be so much, yet you’re nothing more than a bunch of character defects. Forgive me, if I don’t exactly trust you.” Kyoei narrowed her eyes. “Have care how you speak around me. Evidently, you’re too dull to realize when help is being offered.” Shitto scoffed. “So you want to help?” she laughed humourlessly. “That’s rich. You know what? I’ve had it up to here with you. I’ve dealt with you far more than I’ve ever wanted. I mean, at this point, I prefer the company of the blasted Magi than you, so just drop it.”

In her fit of rage brought on by her fellow messenger, stress over knowing Pandora wasn’t very happy with her, and other emotions she couldn’t quite place, Shitto warped out of the room, leaving Kyoei to stand there in solitude.

Kyoei sighed. “…Moron”, she mumbled, vanishing as well.

Back in Hanabi, times were far more jovial. Well, for everyone but Mitsu. She wasn’t entirely happy, at all.

“Mashiro-san,” a certain teacher Mitsu tended to clash a lot with spoke. “I don’t know why you think I would condone you doing a project like this.” “Well, you did say that we should pick something we’re passionate about!” “Yes, however I also said no ‘outlandish’ projects either.” “This isn’t outlandish! I can do this in Hanabi!”

“Trying to figure out the identities of the so called Magical Girls is not a job for a student. Leave that to officials. Figure something else out, please.” “Like the police will ever be able to find anything out?! I’m the only one that can!”

Kawamiya looked at her with a sceptical eye. “First of all, I’m not going to ask why you think that, because I am not going to humour you. You are not allowed to do that as a project. And secondly, isn’t your father on the police force?” “Well, yeah, he is, but the police are never capable of finding out who the Magical Girls are in anime!” “Mashiro-san,” the teacher spoke, unamused. “This is the last of this discussion. The answer is no.” “But-..!”

The door opened, revealing Kira and Shiori. “Well, I guess you can call that a ‘swing and a miss’!” Kira grinned, much to Mitsu’s chagrin. “I did tell you it was never going to work, Mitsu,” Shiori added. “…I hate you guys”, Mitsu sulked. The both of them, having anticipated this, didn’t react that much.

“And we need to get to lunch break”, Shiori spoke. “Sorry she took up your time, Kawamiya-sensei.” The pair had now made their way up to beside Mitsu, and grabbed her arms, pulling her out of the classroom. “Guys, guys, stop! This conversation wasn’t over! I’ve still not convinced him!” “Well, at this rate, you’re not going to”, Shiori replied, to which Kira let out a laugh purposefully poorly disguised as a cough. “Hey! I need to-…”

The door closed around the trio, and Kawamiya-sensei let out a sigh when the room finally became silent. “Sometimes I wonder if that girl is sane”, he muttered to himself, before collecting his papers and heading back to the faculty room.

Meanwhile, still being pulled by her two friends, Mitsu protested loudly. “Come on, you guys! I can still convince him.” “You can’t,” Shiori replied, “you tried, and it didn’t work.” “Eh,” Kira replied, teasing grin on her face. “It could’ve worked. But it didn’t so…” she trailed off.

“B-but!” Mitsu protested. “If I can’t do this-… I have to do this! No-one else can!” “Sure you can! We totally believe you can find out who the Magi are!”

“I heard that sarcasm, Kira.” Mitsu grumbled, and Kira let out a laugh. “Was kinda’ the point, Mitsu.”

“…I hate you guys. Again.”

Due to there being two of them, and Mitsu’s not-so stellar stamina and athletic ability, her two friends managed to pull her along to the roof of the school, where the rest of the group had already gathered. “There you guys are!” Hanako spoke, addressing them. “…Why are you guys pulling Mitsu like she’s a bag of trash?” Anna asked.

“Wha… HEY!” the maniac protested loudly against the sentiment, causing Anna to laugh. “But seriously,” she spoke after quieting down. “Why are you guys pulling Mitsu?” “Mitsu wants to launch an investigation about who the Magi are,” Kira explained. “And tried to convince Kawamiya-sensei that it would be a good idea for the upcoming history/sociology collaboration project.” “It is!”

“We tried to tell her that it wasn’t going to work,” Shiori replied. “See?” Mitsu exclaimed, trying to win her other friends over. “Kira and Shiori have abandoned me! They only pick on me!” “We told you that that wasn’t a project Kawamiya-sensei would approve of!” Shiori replied. “You’re the one who refused to listen!” “See?!”

“Mitsu,” Hanako spoke, “without bias, do you think you would have been able to convince Kawamiya-sensei to let you do it, given his opinions of the entire concept of Magical Girls?” “…” Mitsu didn’t respond. “And furthermore, try to see his perspective.” Hanako replied. “You’ve gotten close to those fights several times already, and have only barely escaped without injuries because Aubade has managed to keep you safe. What if he allowed you to investigate the Magi during school hours, and you ended up hurt? Not only would it be bad for you, because you’re hurt, but also for the school in general, because they allowed a student get hurt during school hours.” However much Mitsu wanted to deny or fault Hanako’s reasoning, she couldn’t. What Hanako had spoken had validity. That didn’t mean that she had to like it though.

“I know,” she muttered, “but seriously! Who wants to do a project on the ancient ruins of Teriff and the society that built them?!” “…That does sound rather interesting though,” Naomi chimed in. “We did a project on them last year too, and I’ve got to say, they had an interesting religion. If I remember correctly, you may even be interested in it too, Mitsu.”

Okay, admittedly, this caught Mitsu’s attention. “…What?” she asked. “Well,” Naomi replied with a smile, “I’ll let you figure it out yourself… Just trust me when I say that I think you’d really enjoy learning about it.”

“…” Mitsu stared at the dark-haired girl, almost waiting for her to crack and say “Just kidding!”, but when that never happened, as Naomi simply stared back. “…You’re not lying.” “No..?” Naomi asked. “Why would I be? I’m sorry, but I don’t really see a reason to.” “Why not tell me why I would like it then?” “Because it’s always more fun to find out about things yourself, isn’t it” Naomi replied, causing Kira to stifle a giggle; Naomi was definitely right. “Plus, if I don’t, your curiosity will get the better of you and you’ll go through metaphorical walls to figure it out.”

Seeing Mitsu’s face, the entire group laughed, knowing that Naomi’s observation was spot on. “Well, go on to the library then,” Naomi spoke, “you want to find out, don’t you?” “Is it OK if I ditch you guys, then?”

They shared a look, before Anna shrugged. “Sure, go ahead.” “Thanks!” And, with that, Mitsu was off again, taking her lunch box with her.

“Naomi,” Kira spoke. “You are a genius. You got her to not only look away from the Magi subject, and also focus on school work in one move.” “…But is it really OK to trick her like that?” Mio asked, speaking up after a moment. “Won’t it hurt her feelings that that was a lie?” “Well-..” Naomi trailed off.

“It’s not a lie,” Shiori spoke. “Granted, Mitsu’ll need to find the connection, but for people who know where to look, there are facts that point to the ancient civilisation of Teriff worshipped what they referred to as deities reborn in young girls, which granted these girls superhuman powers. Most archaeologists consider it a mere result of religion.” Naomi nodded. “Of course, there’s no proof that they’re Magi either, but that description is strikingly similar to one that could me made up about the Magi, if it was given some religious tones.”

“…Right,” Anna spoke, “Shiori dug up everything related to the Magi as she could…” Mio furrowed her brow. “And you’re betting that even though there’s might be a connection between the people of Terris and the Magi, that won’t help Mitsu figure out who we are?” Naomi nodded. “It’s so far in the past after all. It’d be extremely hard to trace it all the way to present time.” “And it’ll keep her focused on school for a while – and maybe not so much on us”, Anna realized. “Yep,” Shiori nodded.

After escaping Kyoei and warping to Hanabi, Shitto honestly wasn’t in a much better mood. There wasn’t much she could do to quickly regain Pandora’s favour. No matter what Shitto thought of, it didn’t seem like it was grand enough. She supposed the easiest thing to do would be to get rid of the Magi, but she had failed so many times before. What’d change if she tried again? The Shade wasn’t the problem. In their un-altered form, they held immense power, but they weren’t really usable without a vial, and as it seemed now, Hanabi didn’t really have any good vials. Especially not when the Magi somehow always seemed to know where the Shade was located and arrived within minutes to destroy it. She stood on one of the rooftops of Hanabi, looking down on the bustling city below her, and stretched out her hand, palm facing up, and a black pearl formed from the familiar that appeared floating above her hand. However, instead of it shooting off to crash into some sort of object, she let the pearl fall into her open palm, sighing.

“I have no idea what I’m supposed to do, y’know?” she mumbled at the pearl. It didn’t respond as it laid blank and glinting in the light in her palm. Noting this, she narrowed her eyes at it. “Sometimes, it’d be great if you’d be able to reply.”

Shitto completely lost track of time as she sat there, on-top of the roof of the tall building. She wasn’t called back, and wasn’t discovered by the magi either – probably because she hadn’t actually done anything, and was well outside the eye of the public. She simply sat there, looking down on the passer-by, yet not really looking either. That is, until she – a couple hours later – noticed a group down on the pavement that struck her as familiar, or at least that one certain member of that group. Focusing on the girl, Shitto tried to remember where she had seen her.

Then she realized.

That girl had been there that day when she first arrived in Hanabi and created the car Shade. She had also been there during the fight Aubade and Hyacinth had fought at that school. And at the ice hockey rink. And when she had gone to check what happened to the Shade she had set loose in that park (hidden from view, naturally), she had been there too. Quickly recollecting all the other fights, Shitto realized the girl was almost always there.

And that most likely meant she had some sort of connection to the Magi. “Well, I guess it’s better than sitting around doing nothing,” she spoke, and dropped from the building, landing in front of the group without caring about the thoughts of the others around the girl.

“You,” she snarled, looking at the girl. “It’s always you. You’re always there during fights.”

Mitsu, of course, recognized the messenger. “Shitto,” she replied stoically, while still being impossibly giddy on the inside. A Commander was targeting her! In anime, that meant a 99.99% chance that she’d become a magical girl herself! “What do you want?”

“What I want?” Shitto laughed humourlessly. “That your best buddies the Magi would just disappear. They’ve caused me more struggles than anything, and I’m the incarnation of jealousy.” “You won’t succeed in that,” Mitsu replied.

“Mitsu,” Shiori spoke, reaching out and grabbing her childhood friend by the wrist. “We’ve got to go. Playing hero won’t get you anywhere.” Having heard her, Shitto laughed humourlessly. “Like I would let you get away! Maybe, if I attack this one, those pesky brats will come, huh? How about that?”

“Yeah, no.” Anna replied. “Seriously, Mitsu! We’ve gotta go!”

“What’s your motive to attack Hanabi?” Mitsu ignored her friends. “And why should I tell you, hmm?” “All fights I’ve been able to confirm have all happened within Hanabi’s border. None in Miyazaka, Shitami or any other region. You’ve focused all your attention on Hanabi. Why?”

“Who knows?” Shitto spoke, “maybe you’ve just not been able to find anything out about any other fights, hmm?”

Feeling actually offended at the jab (which wasn’t true at all!) against her ability to sniff out fights, Mitsu stood her ground. “No, I know for a fact that you haven’t attacked anywhere else. I’d have found out about it.” “Oh, I wonder about that,” Shitto responded. “Doesn’t mean I can’t take it all out on you.” “Wha-..”

“That’s it, we’re leaving.” Shiori spoke, and the entire group suddenly sprung to action, instantly dividing up into three smaller groups. Shiori pulled Mitsu by the arm, rushing down the street. “I swear,” Shiori spoke as she pulled the maniac behind her, “I get that you want to become a magical girl, Mitsu, and the best way to achieve that may be through getting into contact with the Magi-…” “Then you understand why I should stay!” Mitsu spoke “…-but purposefully putting yourself in harms way to achieve that? We won’t let you.” “…Shio-…”

“How about you consider how we feel every time we hear you almost got yourself killed,” Shiori spoke. “How your dad feels!” “…I know, but-…”

A gigantic, humanoid creature crashed through some stalls (thankfully, it seemed as though the attendants to those stalls had fled in time), and broke their path. The two girls stared up at the creature, before Shiori turned on her heel, and ran back the opposite direction and then into another alleyway. “Save your buts for later!” she yelled, holding onto Mitsu and making sure she kept moving.

“Wh-w”, Mitsu panted from the exercise she wasn’t used to, “was that a Shade Shitto created from herself?” “No idea,” Shiori replied, keeping looking up to the sky between the buildings. “Right now, we’ve kinda’ got more pressing matters.”

Fortunately, those pressing matters lessened slightly, as Hyacinth and Numina appeared, landed by the two running girls. “We’ve got to get you two to safety,” Hyacinth spoke. “It’s not safe.” “Sorry,” Numina spoke, addressing Mitsu, “I know you want to see these fights, but we can’t have you here when that Shade is rampaging.” The green Magi picked the maniac up by her back and knees, and utilized her power to boost herself up to the rooftops again – narrowly avoiding a lunge from the Shade.

“Wait,” Mitsu spoke after recovering from the initial shock, “what about Shiori?”

“She’s safe,” Numina smiled, “Aubade and Hyacinth are more than capable of getting her to a safe place.” “I know that, but-… Look out!”

The Shade had once again reached towards the green Magi and her charge, which Numina only managed to dodge because of Mitsu’s warning and her wind controlling abilities. Seconds later, a familiar blue Magi appeared, kicking off from a force field and kicking the Shade back several meters, where Hyacinth instantly appeared to keep it occupied – and the redhead was instantly joined by the remaining parts of the team.

Only, it seemed the Shade wasn’t all that bothered. It still went towards Mitsu.

“Numina,” Aubade called, “this thing is focusing on her! We can’t just drop her off somewhere and call it a day! Keep her with you, but keep moving! Don’t engage the Shade!” Numina nodded, and altered her course to stay as far away from the Shade as possible. Mitsu would have protested, but for once, the reality of the situation seemed to creep in.

Which was only more apparent when a shockwave was emitted from the Shade, and the surroundings started warping – an ability of the humanoid Shade.

"Seems Mitsu was right", Aubade thought, grimancing and actually feeling a bit sorrow for the Messenger. "This thing has the same abilities as Shitto. Which also likely means that Shitto is either at the end of her rope, or she’s gotten powered up. Or both."

Aubade, Hyacinth, Solstice, Nimbus and Métier all kept as close a distance as they could – with Métier keeping a bit more than the other four – and Numina carrying Mitsu as far away as she could while still being able to observe the fight and keep Mitsu out of danger from the Shade.

She kept leaping from warping building to warping building, when suddenly a building she had aimed to land on disappeared – it hadn’t been a building at all, only a really realistic illusion. Both her and her charge let out a shocked cry at the realization, which naturally pulled the attention of both the other Magi and the Shade, which swatted the magical girls away, heading towards its’ target with renewed vigour.

It stormed closer at dizzying speed, and with the warping illusions around them, Numina couldn’t tell where what direction was trustable, and as such, her reaction time was far too slow. The Shade reached her, and aimed to crush the both of them.

Only to stop mid swing as a silver light enveloped it. A cloaked figure was hovering ahead of it – completely disregarding Mitsu and Naomi.

“Shitto,” a voice rang out in the heads of all of them, ''“you’ve lost the last bit of trust Pandora-sama had in you. You have wasted your resources and life essence, and have failed. As such, I have been ordered to dispose of you.”''

The cloaked figure rose an arm glowing in silver, and the giant, hourglass-shaped yellow gem situated at the center of the Shade cracked, and then fell apart into dust. With that, the surroundings turned back to normal.

“This was your fault all along, Shitto”, the voice rang out once more in their minds, before the figure vanished into thin air.

The remnants of the Shade withered away, leaving behind the beat-up shape of Shitto – a noticeable lack of a crystal on her forehead. She fell to the ground, and then her body faded into black, before falling apart in wispy segments that vanished into the air.

Shitto was gone.